Key West Mayor wants Port Security

Dispatches from the Democratic National Convention

By

KathieO'Donnell

WilliamL. Watts

ValBrickates Kennedy

BOSTON (CBS.MW) - Key West Mayor Jimmy Weekley on Wednesday said port security is a big concern for his Florida community, which lies 90 miles from Cuba and sees more than a million passengers a year from cruise ships.

"With Congress not acting on homeland security with the port security aspect of the funding and taking off for the next six weeks, it really leaves our citizens in jeopardy," Weekley said from the floor of the Democratic National Convention, adding that his city also needs to protect its visitors.

Weekley said with Sen. John Kerry as president, "we would have a better chance of getting those funds for our port security that we have to provide."

Still, the mayor said providing affordable housing is his city's biggest challenge.

"We're an eight-square mile island so we don't have a lot of room to build affordable housing, so we have to find creative ways," Weekley said, adding that his city has to look for state and federal assistance for housing.

Officer Kerry saved in Vietnam compares boat rides

Jim Rassmann, an Army special forces officer whose life John Kerry saved after Rassmann was blown off their boat in Vietnam, said the water taxi ride he took into Charlestown Navy Yard Wednesday with Kerry was much different.

This afternoon's boat ride was "simply fun," Rassmann said.

"All the Navy guys immediately started hammering on me to stay on the boat this time," he said. "They went so far as to take me up to the bow and they had the crew of the boat get a life jacket, and Kerry put this life jacket on me so I'd be safe."

Sharpton: More than two Americas

Vice presidential hopeful John Edwards has said he sees "two Americas," one that pays taxes and one that gets tax breaks. But the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose own presidential campaign pushed the urban agenda, told CBS MarketWatch that far more exist.

"It's more than two," Sharpton said. "There's two White Americas, there's Latino America, and Gay and Lesbian America, and I think John Kerry can bring them all together."

Sharpton said the nation's diversity is "an asset, not a liability." He also lauded John Kerry's health-care plan.

"He's come (up) with a very specific health-care plan that I think is credible, that will work," Sharpton said.

Rob Reiner says Teresa Heinz Kerry "an asset"

Actor and director Rob Reiner praised Teresa Heinz Kerry as a "very intelligent woman" with "tremendous world experience," and downplayed the flap over some recent statements she made. Heinz Kerry earlier had reportedly invited a newsman to "shove it."

"Unfortunately, the press will focus in on one word here or there and not really look at the person in total," Reiner said from the convention floor. "What Dick Cheney did on the Senate floor was far more egregious than what Teresa Heinz did," referring an exchange last month between Cheney and Democratic Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy.

Reiner, known for his role on television's "All in the Family" and for directing films including "When Harry Met Sally," said Heinz Kerry is a "tremendous asset" to her husband's campaign.

Know your audience

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, found himself upstaged Wednesday. After bragging to a meeting of rural Democratic delegates that he was "probably the only person you know who can say, 'I live in the same house I was born in,'" a woman in the front row shouted, "I do, too."

Harkin good-naturedly quizzed the delegate, then conceded that she could lay claim to the same boast. "I don't usually get caught up short like that," the senator joked. He made sure to tread more carefully later in the speech. Recounting that he had attended a two-room school as a child, Harkin looked down from the podium and said he supposed the delegate had attended a one-room schoolhouse. She had.

Drug pricing skeptic

Despite Republican rhetoric that a Democratic administration would likely impose drug price controls on the biopharmaceutical industry, at least one liberal Democratic congressman said on Wednesday that he didn't see that happening.

"I don't think there'll be drug pricing. I just don't think that's the way to go," said Rep. Michael Capuano, whose district includes Cambridge, Mass., one of the leading drug development centers in the world.

"I think the way to go is to have international agreements, enforced international agreements, that make sure we [the U.S.] aren't subsidizing healthcare for people around the world, which is what we're doing right now," Capuano added, referring to the ongoing debate as to why other wealthy nations are paying far less for drugs than the United States.

Kennedy on biotech

When asked how the biotechnology industry would fare under a Democratic presidency, Sen. Edward Kennedy, a long-time proponent of medical research funding, offered these thoughts during an interview held Wednesday night a reception for the Biotechnology Industry Organization in Cambridge, Mass.

"First of all, the Democrats would not use an ideological litmus test for scientific research. That has to be, I'm certain, one of the most important concerns," said Kennedy, referring to the Bush Administration's controversial ban on funding certain types of stem cell research.

"Secondly, it [Democratic administration] wouldn't be putting up roadblocks in terms small business research programs that researchers have used so successfully... and thirdly, I think that John Kerry having represented this state [Massachusetts] has a very high regard for the biotechnology industry itself, in terms of what it can do, how it can relieve a lot of the pain and anguish and suffering and disease in this country."

Edwards more popular than Cheney

John Edwards is overwhelmingly more popular among voters than Vice President Dick Cheney, according to poll results released by the Kerry campaign.

In various polls cited by the campaign, favorable impressions of Edwards range from 44 percent to 52 percent, and unfavorable ratings range from 16 percent to 29 percent. Cheney scores favorable ratings ranging from a low of 27 percent up to 42 percent, and unfavorable ratings in the 47 to 49 percent range.

The South Carolina senator and presumptive running mate of John Kerry scores higher than Cheney especially among independents and moderates, two key swing constituencies. Among independents, 47 percent view Edwards favorably, while Cheney rate favorably with only 38 percent of independents. Sixty percent of moderates have a favorable impression of Edwards, while only 22 percent view him unfavorably. In contrast 59 percent of moderates view Cheney unfavorably while 31 percent have a favorable impression.

Edwards also scores slightly higher in his Democratic base than Cheney does with Republicans. Eighty percent of Democrats rate Edwards favorably, while 76 percent of Republicans give Cheney a favorable rating.

Firefighters for Kerry

"He's got a100 percent record in supporting firefighter issues," Yanez, a member of the Michigan delegation and a fire fighter for almost 20 years, said from a seat on the convention floor.

Yanez said he sees the "two Americas" John Edwards spoke of in the middle-class area he serves not only as a firefighter, but as a paramedic.

"I see it everyday," Yanez said. "I can't tell you how many times I've gone on a medical emergency and people refuse to go to the hospital because they don't have insurance to pay the bill. They don't know how they are going to pay the ambulance, they don't know how they are going to pay the ER bill."

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